Once she cleared Konoha's borders, Azula didn't bother using the Flying Raijin to reach Ame like she had when she'd popped over to Kumo or Kiri. Ame just wasn't that far.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Rain were practically neighbors, separated by a single border defined by nothing but the weather.
One side green, the other gray.
At their speed, the three of them could make it to Ame by evening just by tree hopping.
It definitely wasn't because Azula was hoping someone might try something along the way, well, wanting to flex her Mangekyō at the first opportunity. Preferably by copying a Kekkei Genkai or some Secret Technique actually worth stealing.
She remembered that in the anime, the Fourth Raikage had been ambushed when he left his village. If Tsunade hadn't been there, things would've gone terribly for his subordinate and potentially him.
Of course, the ones who attacked him were probably kids right now, maybe not even mercenaries yet. But who knew? Every era had its own prodigies. Maybe a certain Kakuzu wouldn't be able to resist the bounty on her head.
Unfortunately, Azula had slightly overestimated her reputation.
How do you even compare beating two Kage at once to someone who got forced into retreat by the Fourth Hokage even with a two-on-one advantage? Her name carried a different weight entirely. Anyone dumb enough to try their luck wasn't a threat. They were just suicidal.
Tsunade didn't even need to ask why Azula was making that face. It was the face Azula always made when she was hoping for a fight but didn't get one.
What Tsunade didn't get was the other why.
Normally Azula didn't enjoy beating down people weaker than her, and now that she'd awakened her Mangekyō, Tsunade figured the list of people who could make her break a sweat was vanishingly small.
As for anyone crazy enough to attack them right now, here, in the Land of Fire, where Konoha's ANBU and spies were tucked into every shadow? Practically nobody.
"Why the face? You don't seriously think someone's gonna jump you while we are right here, inside the Land of Fire, with our people everywhere. Right?" Tsunade voiced her doubt.
Since they were only three and it wasn't a secret, Azula gave her the honest answer. "I wanted to test my Mangekyō. Everyone else uses theirs constantly until they go blind, and then there's me. Wouldn't that be embarrassing?"
"Huh. So you wanna go blind?" Tsunade looked at Azula like she'd lost her mind. "Actually, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea."
She pictured it. Azula, blind. Meaning she could do whatever she wanted with her. An obscene little smile crept onto Tsunade's face, which threw Tobirama completely.
He couldn't fathom why his grandniece was making that expression.
It was in that relaxed mood, as if they weren't heading to a meeting that could decide the fate of the entire ninja world, that they finally arrived in Ame. Where the most ridiculously lavish delegation was waiting to greet them.
•••
"So this is the Fourth Hokage? Impressive, to say the least." Hanzo murmured the words under his breath as he laid eyes on Azula for the first time, masking his voice with a thin layer of chakra so only those within five meters could catch it.
Among them stood the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, the Third Kazekage Satō, along with the ones who'd arrived later and were already aligned with Azula: the Third Raikage A and the Fourth Mizukage Akiko.
He'd hidden his voice, sure, but not out of fear or some grand conspiracy. He just didn't want her catching his honest first impression the second she walked.
A, who held nothing but contempt for Hanzo, the man didn't deserve the title of demigod as far as he was concerned, cut in with sarcasm dripping from every word. "Impressive? The person who's now the new God of Shinobi is only impressive to you? What does that make a demigod, then?"
Nobody blinked at the sarcasm. The Third Raikage's personality was infamous across the ninja world. His mouth was as dangerous as his fists.
But not being surprised didn't mean letting him run it unchecked, especially for Ōnoki, who considered A the man he loathed most on this earth. Far more than Hiruzen. And the fact that A had betrayed their coalition to side with Azula? That was salt in a wound that never closed.
"It seems that after getting beaten, a certain someone lost his spine and became Konoha's loyal dog." He didn't flinch at using a word as heavy as "dog" for a man like A.
Lightning flickered to life around A's body almost instantly as he turned to face the most insufferable person in the entire ninja world.
Ōnoki, floating just above the ground, didn't back down an inch, looking ready to "eradicate" the Raikage at the slightest twitch.
Akiko, who was attending a gathering of this scale for the first time, hadn't expected it to be so... explosive, and that was putting it mildly.
She was a Jinchūriki, and her relationship with her tailed beast was solid now, but just the sheer presence and pressure radiating off the Third Raikage and Ōnoki made her realize she still had a long way to go.
Just when she thought the situation was about to spiral into something uglier, a voice spoke up right behind Ōnoki.
"Well now. Looks like I almost missed a good show. But considering this whole thing is supposed to be welcoming me, aren't you all kind of mocking me right now?" Azula had appeared out of thin air, when by all rights she should still have been a hundred meters back with Tsunade and her mysterious guard.
They all knew how the Flying Raijin worked.
It needed a mark, a seal, the user threw a kunai and appeared where it landed. That was the rule. But Azula hadn't thrown anything at them.
She'd just... appeared. Ōnoki's first thought was that she'd marked him with her seal somehow, but no, she'd materialized a few meters behind him.
Which meant that wasn't it either.
The atmosphere turned strange, the sound of rain still falling but the Kage themselves dead silent in a way that was completely unworthy of their stations. Nobody knew what to say or do.
They couldn't exactly ask her how she'd pulled it off.
Thankfully, Tsunade arrived right then. "I swear, you always say I'm the impatient one, but you're the one who bolts ahead every single time."
She tossed an umbrella toward Azula, who'd already gotten a little damp the moment she stepped into the Land of Rain.
At a moment like this, Azula couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit envious of a certain Honored One's abilities, nothing else, it's really just cool.
"Lord Fourth Hokage, still as illusive as ever, I see."
Akiko, usually the quietest person in the room, was surprisingly the one who spoke up to Azula.
Her tone sounded almost friendly, like she was talking to an old friend, but there was a trace of bitterness underneath that she couldn't quite hide. Anyone who knew the history between them could guess the bitterness.
Tsunade shot the Fourth Mizukage another look. She hadn't expected Akiko to have the guts to talk to Azula like that.
Azula, meanwhile, stared at her strangely. Knowing Akiko's personality and everything that happened between them, this wasn't really like her.
Akiko herself felt a little awkward, but she didn't have much choice.
People had already lumped her into Azula's faction. The problem was that she wasn't seen as one of the key figures like A. At best, she was considered a subordinate, someone at the bottom of the ladder.
By acting familiar with Azula, she was trying to make it clear that her standing wasn't that low and that they were actually close, although it wasn't according to her personality, but everything is for her village, to restore Kiri's standing.
It took Azula less than two seconds to figure out what she was doing.
"Illusive?" she replied smoothly. "I don't think anyone's ever described me that way before."
If there was anyone who could back that up, it was A.
"Illusive my ass. More like explosive. Kinda like right now."
And just like that, they'd all made their positions clear.
They were on Azula's side.
Still, the tense atmosphere that had been building because of Ōnoki and A eased up noticeably. Ironically, Azula, who looked like the most aggressive person present, even surpassing A, was the one who had actually calmed things down instead of making them worse.